VANCOUVER - Public sector employees make almost
11% more than those working in similar occupations in the private
sector, a review by the Fraser Institute shows.On top of that, government workers enjoy better pensions,
stronger job security, more personal days off and earlier retirement
than their counterparts in the private sector, according to the study,
Comparing Government and Private Sector Compensation in Canada.(Sun Media)

The RCMP has paid its members more
than $1B of overtime since 2009.Recent retirees from the force say the costs confirm anecdotes
that many officers are stressed, overworked and depressed.
'Over 90% of regular members received EDP [extra duty pay]
compensation during the fiscal year 2014/15,' said a report on RCMP
work-life balance completed in May 2016.(CBC)

Resistance to infrastructure projects has
become the norm in Canada's resource sectors. As part of a 4-month
investigation, the Financial Post identified 35 projects worth $129B in
direct investment - mostly private money - that are struggling to move
forward or have been sidelined altogether because of opposition from
environmental, aboriginal and/or community groups. (Financial Post)

VANCOUVER - 15 former clients of an imprisoned
BC immigration consultant have now been deported to China. And the
failed appeals by 2 women who fought to remain in Canada provide a rare
glimpse into the illegal tactics used to carry out what has been
labelled as the biggest immigration scam in BC history.They were among 1,200 clients of Xun 'Sunny' Wang and his now
defunct companies New Can Consultants and Wellong International
Investments.(CBC)

VANCOUVER - Violent drug cartels are expected
to expand their reach in Canada now that a visa requirement for Mexicans
has been lifted, according to government documents obtained by Postmedia
News.The
CBSA report says 'the visa lift will make travel to Canada easier in
order to establish or strengthen existing cartel smuggling chains.'(PostMedia)

MONTREAL - An investigation by Radio-Canada's
Enquete has uncovered
the identities of a group of 10 young Quebecers who secretly
joined militants in Syria to fight against the Bashar al-Assad regime.
The group was made up of friends who often gathered at a Montreal-area
shooting range to practice before 7 of them left for the Middle East
between the summers of 2012 and 2013.(CBC)

VANCOUVER - A teacher at a posh private school
in BC was fired last month after making an innocuous comment about
abortion to his Grade 12 law class.Though there is no way of knowing, since discipline matters are
shrouded in secrecy, it may be the first time a Canadian teacher has
been fired not amid allegations of impropriety, but for having the wrong
opinion.(National Post)

BRUSSELS - The European Commission on Thursday
began the so-called 'infringement procedures,' calling Germany, Britain,
Spain and Luxembourg to account for not imposing the same kind of
penalties Volkswagen faced in the US for using illegal software to mask
health-harming emissions.
The Czech Republic, Lithuania and Greece have been singled out for
having national legislations that did not even allow for fining the car
industry over potential violations.(DW)

BRUSSELS -
JPMorgan Chase,
HSBC and
Credit Agricole
were fined a total of $521M for rigging the
Euribor benchmark as
EU antitrust regulators wrapped up a 5-year investigation into the
scandal.The trio colluded
to rig the Euribor rate and exchanged sensitive information to suit
their trading positions in correlated derivatives markets, in breach of
EU antitrust rules.
(Bloomberg)

PARIS - Jerome Cahuzac, the minister who led
Francois Hollande's drive for a more honest tax system, has been
sentenced to 3 years in prison for tax fraud and secretly stashing his
wealth in tax havens around the world.(Guardian UK)

WEST BANK - Palestinian assailant attempted to
stab Israeli guards at a West Bank junction Thursday morning and was
shot and killed by police officers.No Israelis were hurt in the attempted stabbing attack at a bus
stop at the Tapuah Junction in the northern West Bank. Police said
the assailant, identified by Palestinian media as Muhammad Jihad Hussein
Harb, 19, from Qalqilya, alighted from a bus at the junction and began
moving toward Border Police guards there.(Times of Israel)

OTTAWA - Canada's parliamentary budget officer
says the Liberal government cannot explain how it calculates the amount
of funding it spends on First Nations education or why it is nearly
$600M dollars less than the average provincial education system.(CBC)

TORONTO - Ontario's changes to how municipal
elections work, sold as a way to give unions and corporations less
influence in city politics, appear to have provided more cover for these
groups to support their favourite candidates, in what one city
councillor says could be 'the greatest dark-money loophole ever.'(CBC)

TORONTO - Premier Kathleen Wynne says she is
being transparent about cap-and-trade costs for natural gas customers
because they know what the average impact will be.The auditor general found that 89% of natural gas ratepayers want
the cap-and-trade costs clearly displayed, but the regulator has so far
stood firm, and the energy minister said he won't intervene.(CP)

TORONTO - Canadians pay some of the highest
prices in the world for their cellphone, Internet and TV services, but
those bills could change depending on how Canada's broadcast regulator
handles some major issues it's expected to decide on next year.(CP)

TORONTO - A Toronto doctor has lost his bid to
sue the past president of the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association for
libel over an email she sent to other lawyers, warning that he altered
medical reports on victims of car accidents to thwart their insurance
claims. In a 44-page judgment,
Justice Sean Dunphy dismissed the libel suit, writing that lawyer Maia
Bent's concerns about Dr Howard Platnick have merit and that there is a
'public interest' in not stifling debate about reports from medical
experts.(Toronto Star)

JENNER -
Farmers from more than 40 ranches in AB and SK are wondering what kind
of compensation and business lies ahead for them as the CFIA cracks down
on a bovine tuberculosis outbreak in Western Canada.(CBC)

ACEH - Authorities have deployed hundreds of rescue personnel to
Aceh and thousands of logistical packages are being prepared, after a
6.4-magnitude earthquake struck the region in the early hours of
Wednesday.At least
52 people were killed, 273 others injured and 150 buildings were damaged
in Pidie Jaya. The death toll
and number of injured victims are expected to rise.(Jakarta Globe)

ISLAMABAD - PIA flight PK-661 carrying over 40
passengers crashed on the way to Islamabad from Chitral on Wednesday at
4:42pm. 21 bodies have been recovered from the wreckage.There were 42 passengers, 5 crew members and 1 ground engineer on
board.(Dawn)

WikiLeaks publishes an authoritative,
searchable archive of 57,934 emails from the personal email address of
Berat Albayrak, who is President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's son-in-law and
Turkey's Minister of Energy.The emails reveal the extensive influence Albayrak has over a
wide range of areas of Turkish politics and life.The emails detail Albayrak's involvement in organizations such as
Powertrans, the company implicated in IS oil imports.(WikiLeaks)

WASHINGTON - The
Pentagon has
buried an internal study that exposed $125B in administrative waste in
its business operations amid fears Congress would use the findings as an
excuse to slash the defense budget.Pentagon leaders had requested the study to help make their
enormous back-office bureaucracy more efficient and reinvest any savings
in combat power. But after the project documented far more wasteful
spending than expected, senior defense officials moved swiftly to kill
it by discrediting and suppressing the results.(Washington Post)

NEW ORLEANS - Ronald Gasser, the man
authorities say shot former NFL player Joe McKnight during a road rage
incident, was arrested Dec 5 on a manslaughter charge. The move comes
after Gasser originally was released after the shooting.(NOLA)

CHARLESTON - The judge in the trial of the former North Charleston
police officer charged with a motorist's shooting death declared a
mistrial Monday after receiving a note from the jury indicating it
remained deadlocked.
Michael Slager is charged in the April 4, 2015, shooting death of Walter
Scott after a traffic stop.
(WCSC)

BELFAST - The threat level from terrorism in
Northern Ireland remains severe, the Government has warned.6 people been have killed as a result of paramilitary activity
this year with 17 people injured in shootings and 57 in assaults.The statement also said there had been 103 arrests, 17 people
charged and 5 recent convictions in connection to terrorist activity in
Northern Ireland throughout 2016.(Belfast Telegraph)

MISSISSIPPI MILLS - A group of Mississippi Mills residents is suing
the National Research Council for more than $40M after residential wells
were contaminated by chemicals originating from an NRC fire lab in their
neighbourhood.It's been
almost a year since homeowners living near the fire safety testing
facility on Ramsay Concession Road 8 in Mississippi Mills were told
their water was contaminated and they should stop drinking it. The
water contained the chemicals often found in firefighting foams -
chemicals that were tested in the NRC lab.(CBC)

With the value of maple syrup at roughly $1,300
a barrel, it's time everyone knew about
FPAQ, the Canadian group that controls 72% of the world's supply.
Rich Cohen investigates how its methods may have led to one of the
greatest agricultural crimes in all of history.(Vanity Fair)

KARACHI - At least
12 people were killed and 75 others injured when a huge fire erupted at
Karachi's
Regent Plaza hotel early Monday.The blaze broke out in the kitchen located at the ground floor of
the four-star hotel and swept through the building, trapping scores of
hotel guests in their rooms.
(Dawn)

OAKLAND - A criminal investigators begin to
examine who is to blame for one of the worst fires in modern California
history. 36 bodies have been recovered, but officials halted
recovery operations just after midnight.As of Monday morning, about 70% of the 2-story
1300-block of 31 Ave building had been searched.Of the 36 victims recovered, 11 have been identified.(LA Times)

OTTAWA - Canada's income tax deductions are
helping make the rich richer, a new study has concluded.
The research paper released
Monday by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA)
says breaks on personal income taxes in Canada cost almost as much as
the government collects from those taxes, and they disproportionately
benefit the rich.
(Huffington Post)

OTTAWA - A former federal public servant who
stole nearly $1M in computer parts from the Department of National
Defence and sold some of them on the classified website Kijiji has
pleaded guilty to fraud and breach of trust.Andrew Heggaton, 33, was a civilian member of the Canadian Forces
Crypto Support Unit when he ordered the hard drives, motherboards,
processors and graphics cards he would later steal over a 4-year period
between June 2011 and March 2015.(PostMedia)

KIEV - 5 police officers in Ukraine have been
killed by friendly fire during a botched operation to arrest robbers.The overnight shoot-out between 2 sets of police began when each
side believed the other to be criminals. (BBC)

IMATRA - A mayor and 2 journalists have been shot dead by a gunman
in the southeastern town of Imatra in Finland.The 3 women were shot multiple times in the head and chest by a
sniper who opened fire on a pedestrian area in the nightlife district of
the small town just before midnight on Saturday. Police confirmed
that a 23-year-old man had been taken into custody after Imatra city
council chair, Tina Wilen-Jappinen, and the 2 reporters were killed
outside a restaurant in what appears to be a random shooting.
(Guardian UK)

KABUL - The US military in Afghanistan is
increasingly trying to control public information about the war,
resulting in strained relations with western organizations offering
different versions of events to official military accounts.(Guardian UK),

WASHINGTON- Earlier this year, James Gattuso and Diane Katz
reported that just the 229 major regulations issued since 2009 added
over $100B in annual costs (according to the regulatory agencies), $22B
coming in 2015. With estimates of the total regulatory costs now
exceeding income tax burdens at over $2T annually,
regulations were far more burdensome for many Americans than
legislation.(Zero Hedge)

CARACAS - Venezuela will introduce 6 new notes
and 3 new coins starting in mid-Dec to help alleviate practical problems
in doing business with the world's most inflationary currency, according
to the central bank.
Currently the nation's largest note is worth just 2 US cents on the
black market.The bolivar
currency has suffered its most dramatic monthly fall in history, down
60% since early Nov against the dollar on the black market.The largest new bill, according to a central bank communique,
will be worth 20,000
bolivares,
just under $5 on the streets. (Guardian
UK)

WINNIPEG - The number of people reported
missing in Winnipeg continues to soar with more than 7,335 missing
persons reports since Jan.
In 2015, 8,894 people were reported missing in the city - a 29% increase
over 2014. As of Monday, there were 99 'short-term' active missing
persons with roughly 70% involving youth.(CBC)

VICTORIA - Police have
seized a
shipment of illicit drugs from China worth $1.2M, including a
massive quantity of the deadly opiate fentanyl.Police said a multi-jurisdictional investigation led CBSA
officers to a shipment of 1.45 kilograms of fentanyl bound for Greater
Victoria.(CTV)

TORONTO - Police said they responded to reports
of a gunshot around 9:52pm at
393 Donlands Ave.
Officers located a man with a gunshot wound to the head. He was
transported to hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.Police identified the man as Ardian Kaloshi, 46.(Global)

EDMONTON - Darren Douglas Sinner was killed in
the early hours of Sunday, Feb 21, 2016. Police say the 41-year-old was
rushed to hospital following an altercation, where he later succumbed to
his injuries.Vaughn
Emmanuel Bull, 25, and Patrick Vincent Campiou, 27, have each been
charged with second-degree murder.(CTV)

SYDNEY - Cape Breton Regional Police say
they've charged a 49-year-old man with first-degree murder in the death
of a Second World War veteran 10 years ago.Harold James 'Buster' Slaunwhite, 82, was found dead by family
members in his home on Brook St in Dominion, Cape Breton, on Sept. 10,
2006. Police said they arrested Raymond Glenn Farrow of Glace Bay and
charged him with murder.
(CBC)

LONDON, ON - Police have been asked to expand
their investigation into a nurse accused of killing 8 elderly patients
after 2 more families expressed concern about the 'unexpected' deaths of
relatives who lived at a facility where Elizabeth Wettlaufer worked, a
London, ON, lawyer says.
Wettlaufer, 49, is facing 8 counts of first-degree murder charges in
connection with deaths that occurred at Ontario nursing homes between
2007 and 2014.(CBC)

CALGARY - 10 people have been arrested and 111
charges now laid in the dismantling of a Calgary-based organized crime
group that operated in Alberta and BC.The investigation by ALERT Calgary's organized crime and gang
team began in Nov 2015 and concluded a year later with the arrest of
Timothy Varga, 40, from Calgary.(CBC)

TORONTO - A Toronto police officer remained
silent even as his partner's fabricated evidence helped send a man to
jail, a disciplinary tribunal heard Tuesday. Const Brian Davypleaded guilty to one count of insubordination at the Toronto police
disciplinary tribunal for his actions following the 2013 arrest of
Nguyen Son Tran, the man at the centre of a scandal that's prompted
criminal charges against several officers. (National Post)

OSHAWA - A Durham police officer who removed a
kitten from a suspected drug user's home had her discreditable conduct
charge substituted for less severe charges following an intervention
from an animal activist group.The new charges include failure to speak with the owners before
taking the cat, failure to inform her supervisors of the incident,
failure to take notes regarding the removal of the kitten, and failure
to inform the appropriate agency of the kitten.(CTV)

VANCOUVER - A battle that saw TransLink saw
accused of wasting judicial resources hounding a student into court
over a $173 ticket has ended in a ruling to warm a transit authority's
heart: there's no room for excuses when it comes to fare evasion.More than 3 years after Inna Danylyuk inadvertently boarded a bus
with her boyfriend's U-Pass instead of her own valid U-Pass,
BC Supreme Court Justice Elaine Adair has reinstated a ticket
against the former Langara student. Adair quashed a provincial
court decision by Judicial Justice Zahid Makhdoom, who sided with
Danylyuk and her attempts to fight the ticket through several layers of
appeal. (CBC)

OTTAWA - Police are investigating after a
17-year-old boy was found shot in an SUV on Bayswater Ave near Laurel St
at about 10:40pm.The
victim - identified by police as Leslie Mwakio - was taken to Hospital,
but later died.(CBC)

CALGARY - On Monday, police found the body of
Ezzulddin Al-Ogaidi, 17, in a remote area north of
Morley.Ahmed Abid, 24, Mohammed Khalil, 28, and Ashraf Jasem Ajil, 23,
have all been charged with accessory after the fact to murder.(CTV)

ST ANTHONY - The RCMP in NW Newfoundland say the disappearance of
Jennifer Hillier-Penney, 38, is considered suspicious.
The Mounties in St. Anthony say they have conducted a ground and air
search of the community and surrounding areas and a search of the
harbour will take place today.Investigators are asking residents to check their properties and
to call RCMP if anything unusual is found.(CP)

MONTREAL - A man and a woman arrested in
connection with a double homicide in
Vaudreuil-Dorionare now facing first-degree murder
charges.Over the weekend
the SQ said the force was searching for Richard Hunt, 38, and Melanie
Binette, 28, as important witnesses to the shooting deaths of
Joseph Fluet and Steven Lamarsh.Hunt and Binette were arrested Monday evening.They are facing one charge each of first-degree murder.(CTV)

TORONTO - The gunman who fired the first shots
at the Danzig mass shooting has been sentenced as an adult to life in
prison with no parole eligibility for 7 years.Folorunso Owusu was convicted by a jury in March of 2 counts of
second-degree murder+.
Owusu fired a gun at the Danzig party organizer Nahom Tsegazab during a
confrontation, hitting him and a young woman.Tsegazab and an unidentified man shot back into the crowd of 200
people including children, killing Joshua Yasay, 23, and Shyanne
Charles, 14, and injuring 21 others.(Toronto Star)

KAMLOOPS - Monica Sikorski was handed a life
sentence with 7 years before parole eligibility for her role in the
shooting death of Tyler Myers. Sikorski was 17 on Nov. 21, 2008, when
Myers was killed in the schoolyard of Bastion elementary in Salmon Arm.According to an agreed statement of facts read in court, Sikorski
was involved in romantic relationships with two men in the fall of 2008
- Myers, 22, and a 16-year-old classmate.The statement of facts said Sikorski walked Myers into the
schoolyard with knowledge her teenaged boyfriend was hiding in a nearby
stand of trees, armed with a rifle.(Kamloops this week)

TORONTO - Erica Stark, 42, was on the sidewalk
at Midland Ave and Gilder Drive on Nov. 6, 2014, when a Dodge Caravan
swerved onto the curb, crashed through a bus stop and a traffic control
box and hit her, sending her body hurtling into the intersection.The minivan's driver Elizabeth Taylor, 35, was convicted of
careless driving and sentenced to a $1,000 fine and a 6-month driving
ban. (Metro)

MONTREAL - Sainte-Justine Hospital has
confirmed the death of Dr Alain Sirard.A spokeswoman for Quebec's College of Physicians, said Sirard was
being investigated by the medical body in connection with complaints by
parents he had accused of abuse.(CBC)

VICTORIA - BC's criminal justice branch says no
charges have been approved against Delta police officers and paramedics
who failed to file a report with the Children's Ministry about a child
in need of protection.(CP)

MONTREAL - Once-celebrated Quebec author Maxime
Roussy was convicted of sexual assault, computer luring and other sexual
charges against a minor.
Roussy was arrested and charged with 11 counts of armed sexual assault
and other related crimes.
In 2013 the victim testified against Roussy.However there have been numerous delays in the trial over the
past 3 years, but on Tuesday Roussy was found guilty.(CTV)

VANCOUVER - Despite a
cooling real estate market, many Vancouver-area property owners will
see a 'significant increase' in the assessed values of their homes, with
increases of 30% to 50% for many single family homes, says BC
Assessment.

The valuations, which are used to determine 2017 property taxes, were
taken July 1 - before the province announced its
foreign buyers tax and
sales began to slow.
Increases on residential strata properties, such as condominiums, will
be in the 15% to 30% range, according to BC Assessment.(CBC)

MONTREAL - The 21-year-old man who launched
into a bloody storm in eastern Montreal last night, leaving 2 dead and
one wounded in his wake, had serious mental health problems.
'He should be in an institution for a
long time, it is not normal to have left him outside,' Frederick
Gingras' mother raged.(Le Presse)

TORONTO - Vitaliy Ferynskyy has been named as
the victim after he was apparently stabbed to death early Sunday
morning.Ferynskyy, 32, had
driven himself to the former site of the Humber River Hospital.Security staff at the hospital found him banging on the doors of
the facility at 3am, and proceeded to call 911.
Paramedics transported him to a
nearby trauma centre, where Ferynskyy succumbed to his injuries in
hospital later in the day.
(Toronto Star)

NORTH BAY
- The SIU is investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of a
38-year-old Ottawa-area man in North Bay, ON.The police watchdog agency says paramedics called North Bay
police on Sunday afternoon for assistance at an apartment building.The SIU says police located the 38-year-old man near the
building, and - approximately an hour after police were called - the man
fell from the building.(CP)

VANCOUVER - A woman accused of fatally stabbing a much-loved Burnaby
social worker has been found not criminally responsible due to a mental
disorder.Ayelech Ejigu,
46, pleaded not guilty to the Sept 2011 second-degree murder of Bayush
Hagos, 57, in the victim's apartment.(Vancouver Sun)

WINDSOR -
Jordan Ganovicheff, 32, of Windsor, is charged with first-degree murder
after a man was pronounced dead in hospital.Police were called to
810 Ouellette Ave about 7am Saturday and found a 35-year-old male
without vital signs.
(CTV)

WINNIPEG - MB Hydro's payroll for 2015 exceeds
a half a billion dollars and 2,251 of the company's 6,410 employees
earned more than $100,000. Some of those workers earn nearly 5
times or more than the average Manitoban. Overtime drives some
hydro workers pay packages well into the highest tax brackets in Canada.(CBC)

LONGUEUIL - Police
were called to the corner of Adoncour St and Cure-Poirier Blvd around
5:50am. Officers found a
22-year-old man who had been stabbed. He died later in hospital.
A few minutes later, police recieved a second call about another
incident on Gaston-Veronneau St. A 26-year-old man had been
stabbed in the back. A third man in his 20's checked himself into
the emergency room, after being stabbed. Investigators are looking
into whether the events are connected. (CBC)

WELLAND - Police say
the SUV was travelling west and the car was travelling east at about 1am
Saturday, when the two vehicles collided head-on.Police say the driver in the car, a 34-year-old Fort Erie woman,
was taken to hospital with serious injuries, and her 39-year-old male
passenger, also of Fort Erie, was pronounced dead at the scene.Investigators say the 51-year-old Mississauga man who was driving
the SUV was arrested and charged with impaired driving.(CP)

KLEINBURG - Police
have charged a Toronto neurosurgeon with first-degree murder after the
body of his wife was discovered near a roadway in Kleinburg on Thursday
afternoon.The body,
belonging to an adult woman, was discovered by a passerby in a wooded
area near a ravine off Highway 27 and Nashville Road at around 3:30pm.Police identified the victim as Elana Fric Shamji, 40, of
Toronto.A suspect
identified as Mohammed Shamji, 40, of Toronto was arrested and charged
on Friday.(CP24)

GRANDE PRAIRIE
- RCMP have charged a youth with manslaughter in relation to a death of
Grande Prairie man on Wednesday.RCMP responded to a report of an injured man at an apartment in
the Patterson subdivision around 4:30pm Wednesday. The victim was taken
to hospital but died of his injuries a short time later.Under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, RCMP are not releasing the
name of the suspect and are also not naming the victim to protect the
identity of the accused. (Daily Herald Tribune)

VANCOUVER - A controversial
rocker and Hells Angels
associate convicted of stock fraud has died, 3 months after being shot
in Burnaby.Adis (Ady)
Golic passed away Nov 22 from injuries sustained in the targeted
shooting.The 41-year-old
was gunned down on Aug 22 around 8:30pm in the 7700-block of 12 Ave in
Burnaby.(PostMedia)

CALGARY - An 85-year-old man who was charged
with second-degree murder in the death of his wife has been declared
unfit to stand trial.The
body of Audrey van Zuiden, 80, was found on Oct 4 in the home she shared
with Fred van Zuiden, her husband of 56 years.Family friends say they suspect he has been suffering with
dementia for a long time, but believe his wife wanted to care for him
herself. (CBC)

TALLAHASSEE
- A US grand jury indicted Katherine Magbanua this week in the 2014
killing of Dan Markel, a law professor at Florida State University who
was born in Toronto.
Magbanua - the third person arrested in the case - was initially taken
into custody and charged with second-degree murder in Oct. That
month, one of the 2 others arrested in the case, Luis Rivera, suddenly
pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. He told investigators he and his
co-accused, Sigfredo Garcia, were paid to kill Markel because the
academic's ex-wife allegedly wanted full custody of their 2 children.(CBC)

NEW ORLEANS - Running back Joe McKnight, who
played for the Saskatchewan Roughriders following seasons in the NFL,
was shot and killed Thursday in a suburb of New Orleans.A local law enforcement official confirmed McKnight, 28, was the
victim of a homicide described as an incident involving road rage.A 54-year-old suspect (Ronald Gasser) who remained on the
scene was in custody.
(CBC)